Summary:

Imagine for a minute that you have navigated through the Internet for a hosting provider to suit your needs, but you keep getting stuck with unreliable and overpriced providers who have grown too large to handle your business with the attention it deserves. Doesn’t sound too far off from reality, does it? Enter FastComet, the affordable and powerful solution to all of your hosting needs. Keep reading our FastComet hosting review to find out more!

FastComet was founded in 2013, which certainly qualifies them as a newcomer to the hosting scene, but in spite of their youth, they take a powerful and refreshing approach to the industry. Affordable plans with numerous goodies such as a free domain name, SSD storage, free migration, free SSL certificates, and daily backups mean that you are getting a lot of value for your money, while top of the line customer service and network reliability ensure a smooth and worry-free experience.

FastComet Pricing & Plans

We already mentioned the low pricing and awesome add-ons that FastComet offers, but what really stands out is the lack of setup, migration, and various fees that we see all too common with other hosting providers. With FastComet, none of these silly fees are present, while locked-in renewal rates also mean you won’t be in for an unwelcome surprise when it is time to renew.

FastComet offers shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting plans, with all three variations including the aforementioned free domain name, SSD storage, and CPanel interface. When you combine these features with being able to choose from a number of tiers for each category of hosting, you really can’t choose wrong when it comes to FastComet.

Shared packages start at $2.95 a month for their Single Website plan, which gives -you guessed it- a single site, unlimited bandwidth, 35 GB of SSD space, one GB of RAM, and a dual core CPU. Their E-commerce package at $6.95 a month gives some of the best value we have seen with a provider, with unlimited sites and bandwidth along with a free SSL certificate and memcached memory caching system.

If you need a little more freedom or control over your site, VPS plans start at $49.95 a month for the VPS Cloud 1 plan, giving you two TBs of bandwidth and unlimited websites. Something to keep in mind is that while server locations are available in the U.S, Europe and Asia, locations outside of the U.S will run a couple dollars extra a month.

Dedicated servers are available if your business requires even more power and with FastComet offering managed dedicated plans, this also means less work for you! Their DS 1 package starting at $139/month includes four TBs of bandwidth, 96 GBs of SSD storage space, four GBs of RAM, and a quad-core Intel Xeon E-5 CPU. With SSH access included along with optional root access, FastComet gives you the option of leaving the technical details with them or managing on your own.

If at any point you feel disappointed with FastComet’s service, they offer a 45 day money back guarantee for all shared hosting plans, while a seven day guarantee is in place for VPS and dedicated packages.

FastComet Speed and Reliability

So, FastComet is proving that affordable prices for premium hosting plans can be done, but what about the their speeds? It goes without saying that the performance of your site will heavily influence your ability to attract traffic to your site, and luckily FastComet has all the necessary tools and infrastructure to give you the fastest speeds possible.

When it comes to page load times, one of the most critical influences is where your server is located in conjunction with your site’s visitors. Luckily, FastComet has you covered with seven data centers covering three continents, ensuring a server location close to your site’s visitors. We don’t need to mention how SSD storage is also a big boost to your site’s speed, but FastComet takes this even a step further by offering loss-less data compression (smaller files equals less loading!) as well as mod_expires browser caching support.

FastComet powers your site starting with their commitment to using top of the line hardware all the way to the five different levels of caching they utilize. In case any issues come up with your site, FastComet has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, meaning your account will be credited if you experience any downtime past that number.

FastComet also offers easy CloudFlare CDN integration for your site from the comfort of the control panel. Activating the service is a two minute task, adding the additional speed, reliability, and security to your site that comes with a content delivery network.

FastComet Interface and Security

Whether you are a skilled web developer or a relative newcomer to the hosting scene, it will come as a relief that FastComet uses a clean and smooth CPanel interface. You have quick access to all the necessary components of your site, while user management and statistics also are on a side menu bar.

FastComet has a separate client area where you can also handle account management related issues such as: support tickets, domain registration, and billing information. We especially liked the ability to view all e-mails that FastComet has sent you, avoiding the potential frustration of having renewal and important e-mails waste away in the spam folder. Both the client area and control panel are also mobile-friendly, giving you management over your site even when your on the go.

When it comes to handling your server’s security, you can take comfort in knowing that FastComet’s data centers are protected by 24/7 physical security, as well as full power redundancy and live server monitoring. In the case of any virus or malware attacking your site, FastComet offers complete threat removal free of charge, while daily and weekly backups are also available.

In terms of additional security for your site, FastComet offers SSH access, IP Blocker, Hotlink protection, as well as the aforementioned mod_security manager which comes automatically enabled. With their custom web application firewall and custom cron job support, you are protected from most app-related threats.

If you sign up for FastComet’s E-commerce shared hosting plan, you get a GlobalSign SSL certificate for the life of your plan, while additional certificates can be purchased starting at $69 a year ($5.75 a month).

FastComet Customer Service

While some other hosting providers may provide affordable hosting with similar features and perks to FastComet, customer support is where they stand out for from the rest of the crowd. With 24/7 priority support in the form of live chat, ticket, and a toll-free phone number, FastComet is always available should any issues arise.

In addition to these options, an extensive knowledge base filled with guides, videos and FAQs is available. An additional feature that comes highly appreciated is the option to submit a request for a guide yourself, which is especially useful when you are dealing with highly technical features of your site.

To get a better idea of FastComet’s customer support, we gave their live chat function a test run, resulting in a near-instant response (at 7 AM EST!), while also receiving a friendly and satisfactory response to our site builder-related question.

To ensure that other people’s experiences have also been positive regarding FastComet’s support, we took a look around Twitter to see what people were saying on social media. What came next was hardly a surprise, as we found Twitter full of praise and appreciation for FastComet’s helpful support.

Once again, if you feel any doubts with FastComet’s service, you can cancel at any time within 45 days (shared plans) or seven days (VPS and dedicated plans) to take advantage of their money back guarantee.

FastComet Review Conclusion

I liked

SSD storage

Free domain name

CloudFlare CDN

Mobile-friendly interface

I wasn’t so sure about

Lacking a site builder

I hated

Nothing

When it comes to a premium hosting provider that is affordable as well, we think you will be hard-pressed to find an alternative to FastComet. With tons of features that really make it stand out from the rest of the competition, we are really excited to see them continue on this positive slope.

The absence of migration and setup costs along with the addition of a free domain name mean that you can quickly get started for only the price of your plan. Factor in their money back guarantees and we can’t think of a reason to be disappointed with FastComet!

Written by Thomas UjjThomas Ujj is an expat/traveler and IT enthusiast with a passion for IT security and privacy. When he isn’t planning his next trip, he likes to take time to practice his Italian cooking as well as religiously watching Italian football team AS Roma.